Get Busy Living
by toxic-shock
Summary: Pre X1. A mysterious organization is increasingly becoming a threat to the mutant community. What does it have to do with newcomers Clarissa McAdams and Carina Atherton, and how will they react when they find out just how much they're already involved?
1. Chapter One, Part One

This is a re-write of our old story by the same name. More details and stuff next chapter when I have more time : )

**Disclaimer**: Chances are, anyone you recognize we don't own. All the OCs are of our creation and belong to us (LostAcanthus and CallousCole)

* * *

**Chapter One, Part One**

_The cheerful newscaster popped up on the screen manifesting happiness, as he reported his shocking new story. As he began to voice over the live footage of a gigantic mound of burning rubble, his face and tone instantly became somber, "Tonight hear about the biggest scandal to hit this decade, the newly discovered fad for those bored multi- millionaires that has **shocked** and **appalled** millions of mutants and activists world-wide. We have **exclusive** footage directly from the scene and our news crew has discovered that some of the most prominent millionaires in the world have been participating in the **illegal kidnapping** and **gambling** on the survival of mutants. The stakes were in the millions for this **sick** version of a dog-fight. They hired bounty hunters to capture powerful mutants, and bring them to this isolated part of Britain to "play their game." Using their new and well bought technology they brainwashed the captured mutants and locked them into a Virtual Reality world where they were forced to **kill or be killed**. Until something went **dreadfully wrong** and this arena was destroyed, leaving no survivors…" _

_…Earlier that week…_

Carina can not remember her past. All she carries are the gruesome scars that leave her wondering what her past might have been like; if it was any better than the current one it would be worth knowing. The only thing that she is sure of is her name and her purpose, to kill.

Ever since her and her comrades have been trapped in this…place, all they have done are "missions" given to them by a computer screen. The only thing that remains in this world everyday is that computer, its screen blinking that annoyingly bright blue color, until they are given a new order, a new subject to kill.

* * *

Clarissa McAdams and seven other students walk to the center of a vast expanse of green grass. The sun bears down on them and the blonde first year student takes it in gratefully. She closes her eyes and breathes in deeply, inhaling the sweet smell of the freshly cut grass. 

Raising her arms above her, she stretches and smiles. She's completely content to stand there all day, admiring the fair weather that seemed to be lacking in New York as of late. Someone suddenly bangs into her shoulder, interrupting her pleasant thoughts.

John Allerdyce. He jogs by with a less than amiable expression on his face. Clarissa lets her hands rest on top of her head, her lips forming a hard line as she returns his glare. Her brow then creases as she watches him go. She wonders if she'll ever understand what his problem is.

But still, she hurries to catch up to him, not wanting to miss any gloriously snarky remarks that he seems to be so full of whenever Scott Summers is around. They stand with the six other students—Bobby Drake, Piotr Rasputin, Kitty Pryde, Juliana Reed, Regina Taylor, and Carson Cox—loosely forming a group while waiting for Cyclops to show up.

Clarissa didn't join in any of the mild conversations, just sighed and stood alone, her thoughts drifting back to the weather, among other things. She has only been here--here being Xaviers School for Gifted Youngsters--for a month, and has yet to find her niche in the school. Kitty is closest to her though, and her conversation with Juliana bleeds into Clarissa's thoughts. She's talking animatedly about some new guy in her Advanced Physics class. Clarissa knows him.

Dean Peterson. If it was any other guy, she probably would've at least feigned interest. But it wasn't any other guy. It was Dean. He's a few years older than she is, and she wonders what would possess him to come to this school now, at his age. She had already had the misfortune of running into him--rather literally--a few nights before, and he definitely seemed to have _excellent_ control over his powers. She sneered at the memory.

He was quite possibly the biggest asshole she had ever met. Just thinking about him was pissing her off, and Kitty and Juliana's gushing over how 'hot' he is isn't helping. She turns away from the two girls, tuning them out.

On her other side, Piotr, John, and Bobby are considerably less lively. Bobby and the normally reserved Piotr are talking about some show she doesn't watch or care about, while John stares miserably ahead, grumbling something incomprehensible.

She doesn't realize she's staring at him until he turns, and his eyes meet hers. He smirks, his automatic response to anything and everything. He has a 'You like what you see?' kind of shit-eating grin on his face and any embarrassment she felt from the initial shock of being caught staring dissipates, replaced with annoyance. She rolls her eyes and turns away, but she can't help the slight rush of blood to her cheeks.

Luckily, Cyclops chooses this moment to join them, preventing John from saying anything that would make her blush deepen.

* * *

There aren't many moments to rest in this ongoing "game," so Carina uses every moment that she can to relax. She looks around at her surroundings and doesn't even bother to try to memorize them since they're constantly changing. 

She looks down at her hands to see something familiar and cringes. The raw, stripped flesh of her right hand glares at her against the soft pale skin on her left. She groans, and begins to pace around the computer mulling over what their next target might be, it could be any one of them.

Out of all the "players" of this game, Carina has been here the longest, and there fore she has killed the most of her own kind. It has been nearly a full three years since she has become a captive to this strange world, and she is no closer to understanding why she is here than when she first arrived. None of them understand why they are here, not Antonin, Harold, Dempsey, or Sven; all that they know is that they either kill, or are killed.

But Carina hasn't completely lost hope because she isn't alone in all this, she has Sven. Even though he isn't the brightest out of their group, he has proven to be the most trustworthy, and he and Carina make a perfect team.

While Sven smashes and trashes anything in their way, completely distracting their target, Carina sneaks up on them and kills them, swiftly and softly. And she whole-heartedly dreads the day that Sven and her might be pitted against one another.

The screen flickered for a moment and then went blank, every one rushed to the front of the screen to watch it attentively. Only one line popped up on the screen reading:

The Final Battle—

Kill each other. The last one standing wins.

Carina gaped at the screen. In all her time here the screen had never said anything like this; it had never ordered them to kill _each other_, and it had never mentioned a winner.

Carina was the first to recover as she muttered, "This is bolloks."

As if slapped in the face the others began to shake off the shock the message had caused. Harold started to tremble, and when he spoke he sounded neurotic, "Well we don't have to do what it says right? We can just ignore it right? They can't really make us can they?!?" Harold and Dempsey were new to the game; they didn't know what would happen if you didn't do what you were told.

Just like Harold Carina had refused to play along when she got her first mission, and just thinking about the event made chills run up her back. Carina clearly remembered how when she refused to participate the Virtual Reality brought to life her worst fears. She could almost still feel the scorching hot flames licking at her face, burning all around her, inside her. She shivered at the thought, and answered Harold calmly, "We must fight to the death, or all die together in our worst nightmares."

"WHAT?!? Why?!? What the Hell are you talking about? Why can't we-" Harold's voice broke as he began to release heavy sobs.

Antonin turned and almost sneered at Harold, "Get a hold of yourself, man! The girl knows what she's talking about…even though…I think I have a plan, listen up."

* * *

"Alright kids, Line up." Cyclops says firmly and they all shuffle into a straight line. 

"Aren't you going to apologize for being late?" John asks sweetly, but the ever present smirk is still lingering on his face. John has yet to step into the line. Cyclops' jaw tightens briefly before he responds.

"That depends—are you going to show up on time to your next detention?" Clarissa can hear Regina titter from the other end of the line and she grins. John glowers and steps back, lining up with Bobby and Piotrs' shoulders.

Satisfied, Cyclops continues with instructions. "Drake, Rasputin, Pryde, Taylor—" He calls off the names of every other student and tosses them a colored jersey. "–-Red team. Allerdyce, McAdams, Reed, Cox—that makes you guys blue." They all groan collectively as they unwillingly don the jerseys. Most of them are complaining because this means a short (and not to mention utterly pointless) game of Mutant Capture the Flag. For Clarissa, it's not the game, it's the _jerseys_. They were the one thing she thought she had escaped. She thought those were strictly a public school thing.

She pulls the scratchy blue mesh material over her head and shifts awkwardly, tugging the bottom hem down. _This is uncomfortable._ The jersey on top of her gym uniform (Something else she thought she would never have to wear again. But gym is gym, and Xavier's is still a school.) makes her look stalk-y and awkward as she waddles over to her group. She groans to herself as she approaches John, Juliana, and Carson, who seem to be having little to no trouble with their similar get up. Jules and Carson look sympathetic, but Johns face is smug as he crosses his arms. "Problems, Claire?"

She glares and reluctantly mumbles a negative.

Clarissa chooses to be the goalie. She figures this way it'll be easier to stay out of Johns way, as he has a tendency to be a huge show off. She's sitting in front of the cone that holds the flag, and she barely has to concentrate to keep the electric field surrounding it.

This is the most pointless game to play with a group their size, and why Scott had them do this today, she'll never understand. It's quarter to twelve, which means it's almost lunchtime, and the game is still dragging on, taking longer than she expected. Maybe Cycke will let them go early, since neither side is making much progress.

Taking her eyes off the game and scanning the yard, she realizes that Cyclops is no where to be seen. She stretches out on the grass, closes her eyes, and tilts her head from the sky. She doesn't know how the others haven't noticed.

* * *

The scene that was unfolding before Carina was a grisly one. Harold was on the ground, with Sven on top of him beating his head in with both fists. A large pool of blood was forming all around Harold's head, and his face was beginning to look like a pile of mush. 

Dempsey and Antonin were completely immersed in their battle; Antonin was making colossal explosions all around trying to find Dempsey while he was dodging around his attacks, completely invisible with his chameleon defense.

Now that Sven had definitely killed Harold, probably three times over, he started to run towards what seemed like an empty space and bashed it in. When Dempsey's from appeared in front of them it was evident that his skull had been crushed from the weight of the one hit, blood corroded his eyes as his body loudly thumped to the ground.

Before Sven had the opportunity to turn his heavy fists onto Antonin, Antonin was able to shoot an explosion right where Sven stood. Pieces of Sven's body were flying everywhere, splattering on the dark city scene made by the virtual reality world.

Now it was just Carina and Antonin, and as Antonin turned his attacks onto her, Carina began to move as fast as her legs would let her, straight for Antonin. At the same time that she hit him with her full force, she dug her fangs into his shoulder, while he sent her into the air with a full psychic body blast. The poison coursed through Antonin, killing him almost instantly, his skin turning grey as he hit the ground; Carina's lifeless body fell to the ground beside him.


	2. Chapter One, Part Two

**Disclaimer:** Chances are, if you recognize them they aren't ours. Clarissa McAdams, Juliana Reed, and Regina Taylor belong to LostAcanthus. Carina Atherton, Sven, Antonin, Harold, and Dempsey all belong to CallousCole. For everyone else you're looking at Marvel/Stan Lee. :)

* * *

**Ch****apter One, Part Two**

"… _they brainwashed the captured mutants and locked them into a Virtual Reality world where they were forced to **kill or be killed**. Until something went **dreadfully wrong** and this arena was destroyed, leaving no survivors…_"

The voice stops abruptly and the image on the T.V. freezes as Jean Grey turns to Scott, remote in hand. He shakes his head, and the faces of those around him are grim.

The four senior members of the X-Men along with Xavier were gathered in his office, Scott sitting in one of the hard leather chairs, facing a television screen. The doors were shut and locked, keeping prying eyes away and out of the subject matter of their meeting—although it was only a matter of time before one of the students turned on the news. Rain began to against the window outside, enhancing the glum mood of the situation.

"What do we do?" His eyes, hidden under his ruby quartz glasses, flick from one person to the next. "Is there anything we _can _do?"

"As far as we know, this was the only facility of its kind." Hank McCoy says, stepping forward slightly.

"But from the sound of things, it seems like the prisoners revolted. They did a damn good job of destroying the place, but at their advanced levels, there's no way _all_ _of them_ were destroyed as well." Ororo Munroes' hands are on her hips. Out of everyone in the room, she is the most visibly disgusted by the news.

"I scanned the surrounding area with Cerebro," the Professor began, "I'm hoping that maybe I can locate some of the mutants. While there's nothing we can do for them _now_, we may be able to help them in the _future._ Meanwhile, Jean and I will be doing as much research as we can. If there's a chance we can prevent this from happening again, we're going to do all we can…Jean?" he trails off and looks to the other psychic. Her eyes are distant, and her head is cocked slightly to the side, listening. "Scott, did you leave the kids along in the Danger Room?"

His face falls and his mouth hangs slightly open. He mutters an obscenity under his breath, and in an instant he's up and out of his chair.

* * *

The five bodies laid sprawled out on the floor in a gory mess. The dark city landscape that the Virtual Reality had generated slowly began to fade into a white paneled room large enough to fit a football field inside.

Along the far wall a panel popped open to reveal two dark figures. As they neared the bodies it was visible that they were both very wealthy men from the way they carried themselves, and dressed.

As one of the men stood over Carina's body, he began to speak haughtily, "What a pity, I was so looking forward to keeping this one for mys-" He abruptly stopped speaking and gurgled, blood was dripping from his mouth. When he turned, he saw that his companion was already dead where he stood. It wasn't until his body hit the ground that what had just happened began to dawn on him.

The five mutant bodies disappeared from the ground, and from what had appeared to be the wall to the humans, emerged the five mutants. Harold was panting because of the amount of energy that it had taken to make his illusion. Antonin smiled and grabbed Harold's arm to help him keep his balance, "Good job, I wasn't sure you had it in you. But we better get going before they figure out what's happened."

Already in their sight was a shiny blue barrier that was separating them from the next room. By the time they reached the opposite side of the room Harold had caught his breath, and was the first one to step across the barrier, "Here it goes-"

Carina's heart was thumping loudly in her ears when she approached the barrier separating her from the real world. Carina looked around the room warily one last time; this was her world, the only one she'd ever known. Without a second thought Carina crossed the barrier.

* * *

­­The moment that she touched the barrier she had the sensation that she was floating. When the strange sensation stopped, she was thrown to the ground by the force of Sven's body before she could even look around. Once her ears stopped ringing Carina heard the gunshots over her head. She tried to move her arms, but only managed to turn her head under the weight of Sven's shielding grasp. 

Even though she had seen many dead bodies, and killed some people too, it was still disturbing to be looking into Harold's cold, dead eyes. There was a bullet hole planted directly in between his eyes that had created a stream of blood that was slowly running down his face creating a halo of blood around his head.

Carina quickly snapped her eyes shut and concentrated on getting out of the room. She turned to look up and saw one of the shooters standing about ten feet away reloading his gun. On impulse she began to transform different parts of her body so that she was able to slither across the floor to the guard. Before he was able to react, Carina dug her fangs into his ankle. The man yelled out pulling his arm back to pistol-whip her, but his skin was already turning grey, and he began to tumble to the floor.

* * *

"Clarissa!" Hearing her name snaps her out of the calm she had slowly drifted in to, and her eyes pop open. She barely has time to register what is about to happen before John crashes into her. He's up in a second, glaring at Piotr.

"Don't everyone rush to help _me_ up at once, now." Claire grumbles getting to her feet on her own as all eyes are on Piotr, looking for an explanation.

"The small fiery one was getting on my nerves."

"Ok, now it's ON, tin man! Your flag is mine." John points a threatening finger at the giant metal man. Piotr raises an eyebrow as John begins to stomp towards him.

He's stopped by a sudden tug on his arm.

"Do you think that's really going to work?" It's Clarissa. He yanks his arm free with a sneer. "You keep running at him, you're gonna keep ending up on the ground. Strategy, John." She says, looking meaningfully at Carson and Juliana.

"Ok, you think you're so damn smart, then what's _your_ plan?" he hisses.

"They obviously have an advantage over us. Piotr is like a brick wall." Juliana says hopelessly as she and Carson join the conversation.

"Well, Carson, I think _you_ could take care of Pete." He smirks as John shoots a dirty look at Clarissa for giving the task to someone else. "John, it would be easier for you to distract Bobby." The fire-wielding mutant scoffs.

"I always have to deal with _him_."

"What, I thought you would like the opportunity to start some fires." She grins suggestively. "Keep him busy."

"I think I could cover Regina, her _and_ her copies." Juliana offers and Clarissa grins, agreeing.

"What and you get to swoop in, get the flag and be the hero? I don't think so." John says immediately.

"I can run the fastest, John." She says with a shrug, as if it was obvious. He frowns, disgruntled.

"This blows."

"You'll get over it."

"Shit!" Carson yells suddenly. Regina is on their side and heading for the flag. John, Carson, and Clarissa take off after her. Carson dives at her and misses. She takes a glance back, grins, and before they know it, there are a dozen copies of the blue team running around. The result is chaotic, as they run into each other, into _themselves_, while Regina just laughs and heads for the flag. She snatches it from its home in the little orange cone and takes off jubilantly for her side.

Before she knows it, though, John is on her trail, and closing in. She turns back to stick her tongue out, and one of Juliana's vines jut out of the ground in her path. She goes down. The vine winds around her ankle, carrying her to the jail and dropping her.

Regina receives heated looks from everyone on her team, and she curses herself under her breath for being so stupid.

"I'll take that." Clarissa says snatching the blue cloth from Reginas hands, grinning.

John smirks. Maybe he will play by Clarissa's rules—for now.

"Hey, Icebitch!" he taunts, and Bobby glares at him instantaneously. John flicks his lighter open and draws a fireball into his hand. "Howabout you play fireman?"

"John." Bobby warns, but John just smirks and tosses the fireball towards him. He freezes it and before it even hits the ground John sends another one flying, which Bobby rushes to put out. John laughs. This might prove to be quite entertaining. He throws three more.

The remaining players of the two teams are left eyeing each other across the field, daring each other to make the first move. Carson approaches the line, and Piotr mirrors him.

"What do you say to a nice game of chicken, Tin Can?"

Piotr presses his lips into a firm line. "Why does everyone make the same joke?"

* * *

"You killed him! You BITCH!" Carina whipped her head up to see another gunman pointing his semiautomatic at her head. He started to pull the trigger, but before he was able to complete the action, his neck started to turn unnaturally until it snapped.

Dempsey slowly materialized in the spot where the man had been standing and grinned mischievously as he reached a hand out to help Carina up. "Thanks," Carina mumbled as she stood up with Dempsey's help. She shook her head, her first thought when she looked at Harold's body was, _what if that had been me?_

She turned her head and saw that Sven was helping Antonin get up, his head and chest were bleeding, and it looked like he'd been knocked out and shot after crossing the barrier. Dempsey winked at Carina and then left her side to rush over to help Sven with Antonin, _like he needs it_, but Antonin brushed off both of them as he started to limp through the corridor.

The rest of them followed behind Antonin, moving at a slow pace so that Antonin could lead. When they reached the end of the corridor Antonin reached for the door handle, but then fell short, "this is as far as I go, I'm not going to make it out the night, and I'm not going out alone."

Carina spoke first, "You don't need to die here, I'm sure they could help you."

"Who? Humans?!? I will never let another human hand touch me in this life, which isn't going to last much longer." Antonin's eyes burned with hatred when he turned his face towards Carina. She began to protest, but Sven put a hand on her shoulder, cutting her off.

"Let him stay, he will get his revenge and he will die here fighting instead of in some human hospital, he will die a noble and honorable death, one that he deserves."

Shocked into submission, Carina gaped at Sven, _He Talks?!? And he talks well?!? _Antonin and Dempsey were just as surprised to hear Sven talk, and watched him as if waiting for some alien to pop out of his body now. But before Carina was able to start asking Sven a million questions a minute, one of the doors along the corridor opened and a man emerged armed with a machine gun. "Well, that's my cue," Antonin began to limp towards the man, "get out will you still can…" he trailed off as he started to cause big blasts through out the corridor.

Sven threw the door open, and Carina was blinded by the bright sun shine, before her eyes were able to adjust Sven grabbed her and began to drag her out into the open. They ran until the dome of the building was visible from afar. Explosions were ringing through the air, and then one resonating _BOOM!_ That crashed so hard the ground shook and Carina and Dempsey were thrown off their feet. It looked as though the whole building was about to come crashing down, and with the next explosion, it did. As dust and rubble flew up into the sky, the remains of the building began to smoke, little sections of fire spreading all around.

"Well, I guess he got his revenge," Dempsey said indifferently, as he stood up and began to sluggishly brush himself off, "well it's been fun guys, but I'm gonna go now." Dempsey slowly began to blend into the surrounding hills, until he was barely visible, and before fading completely he gave a final wink to Carina, he was gone.

* * *

John is quickly getting out of hand and having a little _too _much fun—the grass around the playing field is quickly smoldering in patches.

He hears his name shouted, but it's too late. Kitty is headed straight for him—and he's on the wrong side of the line. Before he knows what's happening, Clarissa is crashing into him and he's on the ground, out of Kittys' way. "This is the second time today, Clarissa." He smirks, "You must really like me."

She pulls him up off the ground, ignoring his comment (she's already planning on ripping him a new one later), and they take off for their side. But Piotr is in front of them, blocking their path. They skid to a stop and John starts to double back, but runs into Kitty. Clarissa runs into Piotr with her hands out, fully intending on shocking him in his metal form.

Nothing happens. She blinks in confusion, hands on his chest, electricity sparking between them, and still…he's not fazed.

"Sorry _svetliak_, it does not work that way, I'm afraid." He says smiling down into her shocked blue eyes.

John and Clarissa trudge to the jail, both thoroughly pissed.

With those two taken care of, Carson and Piotr resume their game of cat and mouse, and Kitty rushes off to get Regina out of jail. Clarissa and John realize what she's up to, and immediately yell for Carson to get them out.

As soon as Kitty crosses the line, Juliana has vines popping up left and right, trying to trip her, some forming walls. They hardly slow her down—she phases through them easily. She tags Regina out of jail and keeps hold of her hand as they run for the flag.

"CARSON!" Clarissa and John yell for the millionth time, their hands outstretched and fingers wagging impatiently.

"Alright!" he sighs; he was just playing with the giant metal mutant after all. Piotr grabs him and tries to pull but nothing happens. Carson doesn't move. Piotr tries again, but it's as if Carson is just _too heavy_. He grins and lifts Piotr, tossing him in the general direction of the jail. He lands with a giant thud, leaving a Piotr-shaped dent in the lawn.

Carson takes off to free Clarissa and John. Bobby, looking up from one of the fires he's still trying to put out, sees Carson and immediately runs after him.

Kitty thrusts the flag into Reginas hand, trusting her to get it back to base while she goes back for Piotr. Now Juliana turns her attention towards Regina, who just smirks as copies of herself form out of thin air.

Carson barely beats Bobby to the jail, and slaps John and Clarissas hands, freeing them. Before Bobby can stop, he slams into Carson and they both fall to the ground.

"Go stop Regina!" Clarissa yells and takes off for the flag. John goes the same direction.

"YOU go get her!"

"Why SHOULD I?!" They both dive for the flag and grab it at the same time.

"Clarissa, let GO."

"I can get it back FASTER!"

"Will you just give me the flag?!"

"No!"

"Fuck you!"

A voice clearing makes them look up.

It's Scott, and beside him they can see Regina doing a victory dance with the blue flag in her hands. The game's over; they lost.

The rest of their classmates are standing behind him, looking at Clarissa and John disapprovingly. Feeling like a fool, she lets her grip slacken on the flag and John snatches it away from her quickly.

"While I can't say it was the most impressive use of teamwork, you guys did do a fairly good job." He was addressing everyone, but directed his next comment at John and Clarissa specifically, "Although I _might_ need to have a talk with some of you later."

John groans as their warm, grassy surroundings suddenly shimmer and fade until they are replaced with the cool, gray metal interior of the Danger Room.


End file.
